§ COLONEL NOLAN (Galway, N.)I take advantage of this opportunity to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs a question of which I have given notice, and which, perhaps, he can answer—if accounts have been received from Uganda of a date subsequent to the alleged massacre of the Catholics; if either of the captains on leave from their regiments have addressed any communication to any Government Department, or if the contents of any letter sent by them have been communicated to any Government Department, and when will such communication be published or placed upon the Table; and whether the Foreign Office exercises any control over the East Africa Company; also I would like to ask when does the right hon. Gentleman expect a message from Captain Williams under the altered circumstances, he being on the south side of the Lake?
* THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Mr. J. W. LOWTHER,) Cumberland, PenrithI will reply to the question as it appears on the Paper—that is the 1212 most convenient form. No official accounts have been received. The following telegram from Zanzibar was received on Monday:—
Letters from a spot near south end of Lake Victoria, near Muanza, bearing date March 31, inform me that Captain Williams reached it seven days previously. He reports that the fighting in Uganda is ended, and he hopes to arrange terms with Mwanga's party. The English missionaries are reported all well in Uganda, and French missionaries, numbering nineteen, are now in the district of Bukoba.No communication has been received by any Government Department from either officer later than that which is contained in the Uganda Blue Book, recently laid. The Secretary of State does exercise control over the East Africa Company, the nature and extent of which is clearly defined in the Charter of the Company, which will be found at page 6 of the Blue Book referred to. In reply to the subsidiary question the hon. and gallant Gentleman asks, it would be rash on my part to prognosticate any date when we may hear from Captain Williams, but I think Muanza is distant between two and three months' journey from the coast; then it would be about another month before despatches could reach England, and therefore we may possibly expect information during the course of next month.
§
Resolution agreed to.
Ordered, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to apply a sum out of the Consolidated Fund to the service of the year ending on the thirty-first day of March, One thousand eight hundred and ninety-three, and to appropriate the Supplies granted in this Session of Parliament, and that Mr. Courtney, Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Sir John Gorst do prepare and bring it in.
§ Bill presented, and read first time.